Nintendo Confirms New Console, Evidently Powered by AMD

Nintendo confirms that work is underway for a new game console. Evidently the same gaming device that AMD hinted at earlier this week. We covered the interesting revaluation by AMD a week ago which indicated that AMD is working on a semi-custom SOC for a brand new gaming device.

Many had suspected that the new semi-custom AMD client was indeed Nintendo. However it wasn’t clear whether the gaming device was a traditional living room system or a handheld device until now.

Nintendo Confirms New Console’s Coming – Evidently Powered by AMD

In an interview with the associated press Shigeru Miyamoto the mastermind behind some of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises such as “Mario Bros” and “Donkey Kong” revealed his excitement for the future prospects of Mario on a new gaming console.

AP: Mario has been busy on the Wii U with “Super Mario 3D World” last year and now “Mario Kart 8.” Is he taking the next year off? What can we expect from that franchise in the future?

Miyamoto: Since we first created Mario, people have compared him to Mickey Mouse. I’ve always said Mickey Mouse evolved with each evolution in animation. You saw Mickey Mouse each step of the way. From early on, I wanted Mario to be that character in the digital world, so that with each digital evolution, he was there to usher in the next era. I think that maybe when we release the next hardware system, you can look forward to seeing Mario take on a new role or in a new game.

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Mario is perhaps one of the most iconic characters in video game history and is certainly a character that has evolved as time and technology progressed. However the way Miyamoto described this pace seems to suggest that the most significant evolutionary change is yet to come. The prospect of which should make Nintendo fans very excited.
With relation to the new gaming console itself. When the subject of next generation hardware was directly brought up, Miyamoto wasn’t shy to confirm that Nintendo is currently working on the next major iteration.

AP: I know you’re working on “Star Fox,” but beyond that, will you continue to design games for the Wii U, or are you already thinking about new hardware?

Miyamoto: We’re focused on providing a robust line-up of Wii U software for next year. It seems like we’ve managed to do that this year and people are very happy with what we’ve done on Wii U. For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.

There you have it folks, a new generation of gaming hardware from Nintendo is coming sooner than one might have thought. And yet again it’s powered by AMD, not surprisingly so. Hopefully the new hardware will serve to at least bring Nintendo’s performance and graphics capability to parity with Sony and Microsoft. A device that can run all of the non-exclusive gaming titles in addition to Nintendo’s exclusives certainly sounds like an extraordinarily attractive option.